The Batman 2: Colin Farrell’s Penguin Confirmed, Filming Start Date Revealed

DC finally unveiled its main banner at San Diego Comic-Con, revealing that all of its movies and TV shows will officially live under the DC Studios umbrella. That will include the upcoming launch of its new movie universe with Creature Commandos and Superman, but it will also include the other standalone films and universes that are sticking around like Joker and The Batman. Today it was reported by Fandango’s Erik Davis that the next chapter in The Batman franchise (known currently as The Batman Part II) is set to begin filming next year. Davis also revealed that Colin Farrell is reprising his role as Penguin in the film and that the HBO Max series The Penguin will lead into the sequel. All good news for Batman fans, and hopefully more details about the story and all the other aspects of the film will follow throughout the rest of the year.

The Penguin Returns

Before The Batman 2 rolls into theaters, fans will get a chance to return to the world Matt Reeves introduced everyone to in The Penguin series on HBO Max. The Penguin will pick up where The Batman left off, as Penguin looks to take hold of a Gotham underworld in chaos after the events of the first film. Now everyone’s on notice that there’s a Batman to deal with, but that’s not deterring Penguin in the least.

In an interview with HeyUGuys, Farrell teased what fans can expect from the series, and it is clear this show will be getting pretty dark. “Tons of violence, abject darkness and a man and a great struggle to try and claw his way to the top,” Farrell said. “You know, there’s a power grab in Gotham now. It’s dark, man. Lauren LeFranc with her room of writers wrote eight extraordinary episodes. I mean, just really, really bold stuff. I couldn’t believe that it got as dark as it gets… It would be a Hard R [rating].”

What Is The Penguin About?

Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka The Penguin), the eight-episode HBO Original limited series from DC Studios continues the epic crime saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with the global blockbuster The Batman. Starring Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo, and Theo Rossi.

Based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, The Penguin is produced by 6th & Idaho Productions and Dylan Clark Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, Colin Farrell, Lauren LeFranc, Craig Zobel, Bill Carraro, and Daniel Pipski; writer and showrunner, Lauren LeFranc.

In the original series announcement, Head of Original Content, HBO Max Sarah Aubrey said, “We are thrilled to bring audiences a new version of this iconic DC character that they have never seen before. It is incredible to be working with Matt, Dylan and Lauren on continuing this story and to see Colin take his already exceptional performance in ‘The Batman’ to the next level.”

Are you excited for The Batman 2? You can talk all things DC and TV with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!